UTICA, New York The chatroom was populated by a motley crew of teens and young adults, spread out from California to Tennessee to Massachusetts. They didnt know each other independently, but they were brought together by a single, unifying force: bright, effervescent 17-year-old Bianca Devins.

The teenager from Utica, New York, loved her cats and had a way of creating community. Her friends most of whom shed never met in real life gathered on her server on Discord, a messaging app for gamers, to discuss true crime, talk about cryptozoology, play Minecraft and dish about their daily plans.

Bianca, who was tall and slender, could come across as shy in person, even a little awkward. At Thomas R. Proctor High School, she often retreated to the art room to work on projects during lunch. Albert Shaw, her teacher for three years, said she stood out as a naturally gifted artist. Whatever she did, it was amazing, he said. It was always the best in the class.

Online, uninhibited by anxiety, her creativity shone. She sent her friends silly homemade videos set to music and posted artistic selfies with quirky compositions her face surrounded by skulls and bats, or paired with ironic text. She often switched up her look, experimenting with pink hair and dramatic makeup. She liked modeling but her long-term plan was to get a degree in psychology so she could help adolescents with mental illness, which she struggled with herself. She was set to attend Mohawk Valley Community College in the fall.

On Saturday, just two weeks after her high school graduation, Bianca headed to New York City to see one of her favorite singers, Nicole Dollanganger , whose dark songs tackle self-harm and depression. Bianca had invited a handful of people from her group chat but ended up going with only one, Brandon Clark, 21. They went to the show, driving several hours there and back again in one night.

Clark was one of Biancas IRL friends, and he lived an hour from her. On Discord, he mostly posted about macabre stuff and murder suicides, said Biancas friend Jared, 18. None of her online friends wished to use their real names in this article because they were afraid of internet harassment, and they are all being identified by pseudonyms.

Like most mornings, Jared, who lives in a small town in southern Utah, logged in to Biancas group chat on Sunday to see what hed missed overnight.

There, posted 15 minutes earlier, was a photo of Biancas body. From the gaze in her eyes and the extensive injuries, it was obvious she was dead.

The image, posted under a username associated with Clark , was accompanied by a message: Sorry fuckers, youre going to have to find someone else to orbit.

On his own social media accounts, Clark was busy telling a story seemingly calculated for maximum exposure. He uploaded pictures of himself and Biancas body and declared his intention to kill himself. As police arrived to apprehend him on a secluded street in Utica, he continued to snap photos and post them online.

He even left a message at the scene, police said: The words May you never forget me were spray-painted on the pavement, an apparent reference to a manga about a toxic relationship that both he and Bianca liked.

Photos of the violence were shared and reshared online, then modified and shared some more. By the time #RIPBIANCA began to trend, a teenage girls death had gone viral. The internet, a place where shed found friends and community, had turned on her.

In the immediate aftermath of her death, certain narratives, sticky as rice, began to emerge. Everyone wanted Biancas death to mean something.

Some claimed Bianca was a semi-famous internet celebrity who had been stalked by someone she met online. Others said her killer was an incel, a member of an internet subculture that resents women for not having sex with them. And some said her death was a prime example of teen domestic violence, unique only because of the viral posts. (Nearly half of all murders of U.S. women are perpetrated by intimate partners: boyfriends, husbands and lovers. Ninety percent of teens killed by dating partners are girls.)

The truth is still being excavated. What is known is that Bianca was not famous; she had a small number of followers online. And there are conflicting reports on her connection to Clark. According to one of Biancas sisters, he was a trusted and close family friend. The police said they met on Instagram and had been dating for at least two months. Friends who spoke to HuffPost said Clark sometimes gave her drugs to get her to hang out with him. At least one friend worried that Clark, four years older than Bianca, was taking advantage of her sexually while they were high.

Police have not yet declared a motive in the killing and few details have been publicly released. But some clues can be found in Biancas online correspondence from Saturday night. According to a chat log reviewed by HuffPost, she told a friend she had met up with another guy she was interested in, and kissed him in front of Clark. It made him mad, she wrote.

Clark and Bianca left Trans-Pecos, a small music venue and coffee shop in Queens, New York, late in the evening to make the four-hour drive back to Utica. It is unclear what route they took; police are working on obtaining toll records to track their movement. But Bianca was dead by early Sunday morning, allegedly killed inside Clarks car.

When Jared first saw the photo of Biancas body, he was in shock. I wanted so hard to believe it was fake and an elaborate prank, he said.